Page content

June 18, 2010

Author and Historian Tony Williams Explores How Jamestown Colony Nearly Failed and How It Survived

Author and historian Tony Williams discusses the political and meteorological climates in the 17th and 18th centuries during upcoming programs at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg.

On Wednesday, June 30, he explores the events surrounding the settlement of the Jamestown colony in his forthcoming book, The Jamestown Experiment. Williams examines the settlement of the colony as an audacious business venture by the free and independent English gentlemen-adventurers driven by national glory and the stirrings of private enterprise. He narrates the significant events that led to the colony teetering on the brink of collapse and the decisions that kept the venture alive.

During the second program on Wednesday, Sept. 1, Hurricane of Independence, Williams talks about his first book that tells the dramatic story of a deadly hurricane that struck North America in 1775, the year the American Revolution began. The book traces the path of the hurricane as it swept through the American colonies.

Both programs begin at 5:30 p.m. A book signing will follow the program.

Williams also is the author of the newly released “Pox and the Covenant: The Epidemic That Altered America’s Destiny.”

A Colonial Williamsburg admissions ticket, museum pass or Good Neighbor Card provides access to this lecture.

The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg are located at 326 W. Francis St. in Williamsburg, Va., and are entered through the Public Hospital of 1773. Operating hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. For museum program information, telephone (757) 220-7724.

Established in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is the not-for-profit educational institution that preserves and operates the restored 18th-century Revolutionary capital of Virginia as a town-sized living history museum, telling the inspirational stories of our nation’s founding men and women.

Williamsburg is located in Virginia’s Tidewater region, 20 minutes from Newport News, within an hour’s drive of Richmond and Norfolk, and 150 miles south of Washington, D.C., off Interstate 64. For more information about Colonial Williamsburg, call 1-800-HISTORY or visit Colonial Williamsburg’s Web site at www.history.org.